Initial Skateboard Research

To begin with my initial research, I went onto Pinterest and began to look at an eclectic range of designs in order to cover every basis of what kind of skateboard I want to create. To start with I do not know what I want to make at all. I know I want to create something hand drawn however I need to greatly improve my illustration skills before I do this, however I also want to make something graphical such as the design below. However I need to keep with one design since I am creating a brand of skateboards not a company. This design below though is a great example of graphic boards, with it’s basic design, shapes and colours it’s very simplistic and has a great composition. The board also has a logo at the bottom of it, showing that it is part of a company, Joslin. Their designs however seem to be very varied as some of them are like the one below and then others are hand drawn illustrations. It will be interesting to see what I choose to do with my designs in the future.

This next design was created for the band ‘Suicidal Tendencies’ for their store ‘Suicidal Skates’. As you can see the design is black and white, hand drawn and very gritty in design to make it look more punk, especially with the skeletons and also dark in order to appeal to their target audience and to skater kids in general. If I decide to follow this kind of style in the future, I will more than likely want to include some kind of skull design and I look to the for some reference on how to incorporate them into my designs.

These next designs were created by hardcore underground artist Mark Riddick. These designs are honestly way out of my league in terms of something I could create however I love this art style of using skulls, vines and dripping moss/damp. It’s super gritty and hardcore which could be something that I want to recreate. I still haven’t pinpointed my audience yet, since there are many different forms of skaters and I need to decide which one has the biggest following and which designs I feel like would be the most beneficial for me to take influence from. Just like the last piece, I really like this design and will be interested in how I can use this kind of style in my own work if I choose to follow this style and pursue this audience further.

This next board was made by the company ‘Restless’ who mostly make longboard designs however they also make designs for wheels and board grips. Their designs vary, however not by much and the designs that are different from each other (graphical and illustrated) are similar to each other in their own styles. For example all the illustrated boards are all in the same cartoon style which I personally really like. I love this style of artwork and if I chose to follow a more indie style when creating my designs, I will be sure to experiment with geometric shapes and colours like this design in the future.

This skateboard was created by the company Powell-Peralta for the skateboarder Kevin Harris. However despite this design, I looked at the companies website and other designs and found that their design are mostly based around 80’s power metal designs and this seems to be a one of kind of creation. Which is kind of a shame because I absolutely love this design and when looking at it, it actually fills me different ideas I can do based around the maple leaves and skulls. Once again, following the skull theme throughout my ideas, I will of course take inspiration from this and consider how I will apply it to my own work in the future if I decide to use a more punk/hardcore style rather than more indie/hipster designs.

This next was made by an unknown skate company as I couldn’t trace the design back to them at all. I really wish I could though because I adore this design, the colours are striking, the wear on the board works so well with the spray paint and oils used on this board which just shows how much work was put into it. I have no idea how to make something like this however I think I might be able to make something like this using photoshop and illustrations. While this uses skulls once again, this is more of a graffiti style which would appeal to a large audience and is definitely something that I would want in my designs in the future.

This next design was made by Volador skateboards who don’t actually have their website but seem to be a freelance based artist who also happens to do skateboard designs. Despite this however this is probably one of my favourite kind of design and I am actually tempted if I were to go into graphical designs for my board, then this would be the exact kind of style I would want to recreate. Maybe not on these kinds of boards but definitely this kind of art style. Like the other minimalistic/indie board before, I would love to use something like this my own designs, while I don’t know what I’m making yet, I like to think that I could use something like this in my designs and draw inspiration from this.

This next design was made by another unknown artist however I really like this Los Muertos style of design as I think that the skulls work so well with so many different kinds of elements incorporated into the designs. For example, roses, guns, words, people, vibrant colours, black and white etc. I just think that it is a great basis for a design that can really work with anything that it’s placed with. While the sugar skull design is kind of basic and generic, I still really like this design and the monochrome colours used in it as well and would love to work with similar to this in my own design if I chose to follow this similar kind of design.

This board was created by the company ‘Arbor Collective’ who don’t seem to stick to one design however they create a collection of boards at a time which are all very similar however the collections are all different and unique. The one below is from a collection where they are all mirrored designs and black and white. I actually love this design and I admire the unique negative space used and old styled drawings used in the design which contrast so well with the modern background and board style. The other collections though all range from photography to pop art style designs. This is exactly the kind of board styles that I was looking for and I am considering looking into this company further in order to better understand how they brand their boards. They also target indie/hipster skaters rather than punk which helps distinguish their design from everyone else. While I really like this style and design, I’m not sure if I would actually want to use it in my own designs as I don’t have a desire to work with animal imagery or this level of symmetry. So it is unlikely that I will be doing something like this in the future or taking the inspiration from this into my own designs.

This next design is taken straight from Scott Pilgrim vs The World, however I didn’t manage to catch the name of the artist so I may look into that further in the future. I am heavily inspired by comic book art styles and designs used on anything that incorporate comics in them. Therefor this design really stands out to me over a lot of the other designs, and while I may not be able to create something this good. I could make something in the same style but more simplistic in composition and colour. While I really like comic book designs and I have some ideas of how I could use that for my boards, I would honestly much rather use comic typography in my designs instead so I don’t think that this will actually be incorporated into my work. However I love the colour palate and that may be something I take into account when creating my final pieces.